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| Via Katlehong Dance |
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The award winning Via Katlehong Dance was formed in 1992. Originally a community troupe, Via Katlehong was composed by youths from the township of Katlehong in the East Rand – a notorious war zone during the 1980’s uprising in south Africa – to keep away from the criminal activity raging in their township.
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| Imbizo e Mazweni
(a meeting outside homeland)
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VIA KATLEHONG DANCE invit Christian Rizzo and Robyn Orlin
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| Toutes sortes de déserts |
Creation in novembre 2007 in Théâtre de l’Onde
Espace culturel de Vélizy-Villacoublay
Choregraphy : Christian Rizzo
Piece for 9 dancers
Duration : 30 minutes
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“As soon as I received the proposal to work with the Via Katlehong company I went to see them perform on stage.
For the first few minutes of the performance, I was asking myself if there was really any point in us working together.
I was taken up in my codes associated with a certain contemporary stage art.
But very quickly, their energy, both in their dancing and soundscapes, convinced me. Above and beyond the form that I was seeing, it was the notion of dance, almost archaic, which came to the fore; a seamless relationship with theatre as a salutary activity for living bodies.
And thus it was that I moved towards this new universe.
And as I did, emerged the desire to assess my own universe, both baroque and abstract, in the light of their desire to narrate.
To take this new encounter as a new adventure, reassess my own relationship to stage writing.
Another facet of my imaginative world can then set to work to gauge the friction of our various dance practices, or our perception of the contemporary world.”
Christian Rizzo
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| Still life with homeless heaven and urban wounds… |
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Creation november 2007 in Théâtre de l’Onde
Espace culturel de Vélizy-Villacoublay
Piece for 9 dancers
Duration : 30 minutes |
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“Pantsula... A name that goes back to the 70's when a pantsula was supposed to be the one who dressed elegantly yet not too formally but still made a fashion statement, also a popular dance form called “pantsula jive”... It became a very popular dance form during the 80's among young men in the townships... It includes not only a dance as a way of expressing oneself, but it is a way of life and impacts on where one lives... It has been described as .... A flat footed African tap - and - glide style of dance... The Zulu word pantsula can be translated to mean - to waddle like a duck or alternatively to walk with protruded buttocks - a characteristic of this dance form...
But for me, pantsula is a spontaneous expression of life which reflects the latent violence of the South-African culture... Mainly male orientated, unlike kwaito which is a very popular dance form for both men and women... With the group Via katlehong, we will look at how this dance form became a political expression in the 80's and still today manages to comment on the pervading cultural and political climate in South Africa.”
Robyn Orlin.
Co-production : Maison des Arts de Créteil, Théâtre du Manège de Maubeuge, L’Onde, Espace Culturel de Vélizy-Villacoublay, Institut Français d’Afrique du Sud, CulturesFrance, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Le Séchoir à Saint Leu – La Réunion, Damien Valette prod.
With the support of CulturesFrance-Ministère des Affaires étrangères department, « Afrique et Caraïbes en Créations », Centre national de la danse – Pantin.
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| Nkululeko - Celebrating 10 years of freedom in South Africa. |
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Piece for 9 dancers
Choregraphy : Via Katlehong Pantsula, Gumboot and Tap Dancers
Duration : 50 minutes
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Lead by Buru Mohlabane, Vusi Mdoyi and Steven Faleni, the company comprises a community school of dance and an 18-members who are professionally outfit. They specialize in « Pantsula », a South African township dance, and other neo-traditional forms such as « Gumboots », « tap Pantsula » and « steps » - a township interpretation of Gumboots dance.
Via Katlehong, through their innovative approach to Pantsula, Gumboots, Tap and Steps, they helped to revive the form, making it an important feature in South African contemporary dance today. They have won many awards along the way, including FNB Vita Dance, Dance Umbrella awards, Gauteng Dance Showcase, KTV Most Brilliant Achievement and Gauteng MEC Development Award amongst others.
They also currently participated in « Step Africa », an international cultural exchange dance workshops involving South Africa, the United States and Great Britain. They were currently involved in the Cultural exchange dance educational workshops in CNCDC Châteauvallon (France).
The piece « Nkululeko – celebrating 10 years in South Africa» was performed in many cities and dance festivals such as Les Rencontres de La Villette – Paris (France), Suresnes Cités Danse – Suresnes (France), C’est de la Danse Contemporaine ! CDC -Toulouse (France), and venues like Le Parvis – Scène Nationale de Tarbes (France), Dieppe Scène Nationale – Dieppe (France, L’Odyssée - Périgueux (France) …
After the major forced removal institutionalized by the Apartheid state during the sixties in South Africa, many of the country’s black population was relocated to township in the urban zones. As meeting zone between rural and city dwellers, these reservoir for cheap labors, unemployed and criminal activity became the bleeding ground for the explosive culture to come out of the country : Pantsula culture.
Pantsula – a nickname for the rebellious youth in the township – included a fashion, a music, a dance and most importantly, a lifestyle. And the tsotsis (thugs) of each township found pride in representing ther Pantsula culture of their township. As access to music equipment was limited to very few, most of this competitive spirit was played out in the street : who dressed the fusionist and who had the flashiest dance steps.
Pantsula therefore uses the street as theater to articulate the angst, joy and issues of the township, all coded in specific steps.
In the new South Africa, the dance has slowly moved out of the township, with is accompanying music « known as kwaito » and in to the commercial arena. This commercialization of the culture has let to it being diluted and less true to the survival spirit that gave birth to it. Only few groups such as township-based Via Katlehong have managed to bring the creativity by putting the tap steels under nigh the shoe to create other dance rhythms (tap pantsula), whistle ling, shouting, clapping and sheering energy and rebellious attitude of Pantsula dance onto the stage with or without the music.
Gumboots dance was formed in the early fifties by the group of mine workers, to celebrate, to refresh their minds and for the toy toy (protest). But more than that Via Katlehong have managed to modernize it in such a way that it is worked and collaborated with tap, Steps, Pantsula and traditional music dance (Gum-step-tap-pantsula). They are all performing at the same time using their different language (rhythm) dance style making one energetic movement that creates big sound of rhythm. Boot, hand clapping, whistling, sinning, tap-sound… A lot of energy is demanded and it also enter-acts with the audience, … it’s magic.
With the support of the Institut Français d’Afrique du Sud, the National Arts Council, the Recreation Sports Arts & Culture, the FNB Vita Dance Umbrella & Ekurhuleni Arts Forum & Gauteng Dance Manyano.
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| Woza |
with the dancers of Via Katlehong Dance (distribution ongoing)
Co-production (ongoing) : Via Katlehong Dance, Johannesburg, Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Damien Valette Prod, Paris.
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The piece acknowledges the gifts of nature. The sound of trees, wind and animals has always inspired African music. African instruments were sculptured from natural resources and created a culture of rhythms and sounds that naturally inspired African people’s bodies in the developpment of movements and dance. Dance created it’s own universal language within the communities. For the Via Katlehong Company these dance movements that were adopted from creatures do not exist without rhythm; rhythm is the creator and the lord of the dance.
Thirteen performers on stage present a combination of Pantsula - the South African township urban dance - and traditional Gumboots dance, mixed with African contemporary dance, accompanied by live music - played on typical and unique South African traditional instruments -, voices and Tap pantsula (a combination of tap- and pantsula-dance). Via Katlehong created a new dance form called Mogaba-dance, a combination of energetic, powerful and aggressive dance moves with strong stamping feet, hand clapping and loud voices, that has a powerful approach on stage and is forming a strong rhythmic sound.
A Brief History of ‘Pantsula’ dance
After the major forced removals institutionalized by the Apartheid state during the sixties in South Africa, many of the country’s black population was relocated to townships in the fringes of the urban zones. As meeting zones between rural and city dwellers, these reservoirs for cheap labour, unemployment and criminal activity became the breeding grounds for the most explosive culture to come out of the country: Pantsula culture.
Pantsula – a nickname for the rebellious youths in the township – included a fashion, music, a dance and most importantly, a lifestyle. And the tsotsis (thugs) of each township found pride in representing the Pantsula culture of their township. As access to music equipment was limited to very few, most of this competitive spirit was played out in the streets: who dressed the flashiest and who had the flashiest dance steps.
Pantsula dance therefore uses the street as a theatre to articulate the angst, joy and issues of the township, all coded in specific dance steps.
In the new South Africa, this kind of dance and it’s accompanying music, known as kwaito, has slowly moved out of the townships and into the commercial arena. This specific culture was being diluted by its commercialization and nowadays often appears less true to the survival spirit that gave birth to it. Only very few groups such as township-based Via Katlehong have managed to bring the creativity, sheer energy and rebellious attitude of Pantsula-dance onto the stage.
Gumboots-dance was formed in the early fifties by the group of mine workers, to celebrate and refresh their minds as well as for the toy (protest). The Via Katlehong modernized it in combining it with tap-dance, Pantsula-dance and traditional music.
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Christian Rizzo
Before he became famous in the contemporary dance scene, Christian Rizzo set up a rock band and a clothes brand in Toulouse. After training as a plastic artist at Villa Arson, he worked and created costumes and soundtracks to choreographies by Vera Mantero, Sylvain Prunenec, Emmanuelle Huynh, Christian Bourrigault, Mathilde Monnier... In 1996 he founded L'association fragile/Christian Rizzo and presented his first creation Y La? the following year. Other works followed: Projet-type(s), Objet dansant n°1, Hello Dolly, 100% polyester. Using again his favourite themes, body and clothes, he presented "et pourquoi pas: bodymakers, falbalas, bazaar, etc.", a work that displayed five bodies as fantasy objects, as a reflection upon absence and immobility.
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Robyn Orlin
Robyn Orlin is one of South Africa's most controversial and provocative choreographers / performance artists. She has transformed and redefined choreography and performance art in her country, revealing and stigmatizing its contradictory reality. Her provocative themes and her work - where the universes of whites and blacks, with their respective stereotypes, often collide - have become famous all over the world. Orlin's unique titles, such as: « If you can't change the world change your curtains » (1990); « The explosion of stars is not only reserved for ticket holders » (1994); "Daddy, I’ve seen this piece six times before and I still don’t know why they’re hurting each other" (1998) ; « We must eat our suckers with the wrapper on » (2001) ; « The future may be bright, but it's not necessarily orange » (2001)... are also very evocative.
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IMBIZO
The first piece of the evening, « Toutes sortes de déserts » (All sorts of deserts), choreographed by Christian Rizzo, is a look at, amongst other things, African spirituality.
At times the music was almost white noise an at others it was the singing and drumming for which black South Africans are justly famous.
The movements varied between the energetic, rhythmic and aggressive an the deliberate, gentle, calm actions […] Dancers spinning around, holding other dancers, falling into « faints » or shivering all evoked strong emotions, both from the performers and from the audience.
This work had a strong feel of something created to a formula, but not in a contrived, ugly way, rather making use of an invisible set structure to contain a beautiful and integrated whole.
The second work of the programme was « Still live with homeless heaven and urban wounds (even bananas have bones) » choreographed by Robyn Orlin.
The finale was worked with the group backing themselves into the backcloths, draping their bodies in orange and donning duck masks. Their physical presence was simultaneously explored together with a video of the performers, in costume, in the townships. It was wonderful fun and it ended with […] thunderous audience applause.
Moira de Swardt, artslink.ca.za, 5 April 2008
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Via Katlehong Dance // 2008
Du 3 au 10 juin 2008 Athis-Mons, France, Festival : workshop
Le 15 juin 2008 Tremblay-en-France, Théâtre de Tremblay : Présentation de saison
Du 2 au 5 juillet 2008 Amsterdam, Pays-Bas « Imbizo e Mazweni »
Le 13 juillet 2008 Vienne, Autriche, ImPuls Tanz festival « Nkululeko »
Du 14 au 18 juillet 2008 Vienne, Autriche, ImPuls Tanz festival : Workshop
Les 20 et 21 juillet 2008 Kalamata, Greece, Kalamata Dance Festival: « Imbizo e Mazweni »
Les 15 et 17 juillet 2008 Saint Leu, Ile de la Réunion, Le Séchoir : « Imbizo e Mazweni »
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